Hoping to cut Lee’s supply route into Petersburg, in February 1865 Grant ordered two army corps led by Major Generals Gouverneur K. Warren and Andrew A. Humphreys to seize the Boydton Plank Road. The Confederate corps commanded by Maj. Gen. John B. Gordon successfully blocked Warren’s attacks at nearby Dabney’s Mill on 6-7 February, and Warren’s corps withdrew to its previous position. The brief Union campaign enabled Grant to extend his lines, and cost the Confederates the life of Brig. Gen. John Pegram on 6 February. — Map (db m6486) HM

By early 1865 the Federal army’s two remaining objectives along the Petersburg front were the Boydton Plank Road, an intermediate wagon supply route into the city, and the South Side Railroad, a major transportation artery from Lynchburg and the Shenandoah Valley. Union forces had already cut the Weldon Railroad as far south as Hicksford (now Emporia), forcing the Confederates to unload supplies at the station there, load them on wagons, and haul them cross-country through the Meherrin River . . . — Map (db m6501) HM

On February 6, the Union forces pressed onward towards the South Side Railroad. Around 1 p.m., Major General Gouverneur K. Warren’s Fifth Corps sent out two divisions under the leadership of Major General Samuel Crawford and Major General Romeyn Ayres to reconnoiter south of Hatcher’s Run. Their left was to be protected by David M. Gregg’s cavalry along the Vaughan Road at its crossing of Gravelly Run. Confronting the Federals this day were two divisions of Gordon’s Corps led by generals John . . . — Map (db m6504) HM

Lee's right wing was defended by earthworks on this stream, here and to the east. These works were unsuccessfully attacked by Union forces, February 5-7, 1865. On the morning of April 2, 1865, they were stormed by Union troops. — Map (db m17696) HM